02.18.13

Summary: New *Ubuntu releases are due to Microsoft’s latest antitrust-violating/esque tactics

The new releases from Canonical (screenshots above are from DistroWatch on Friday) bring little more than UEFI-related changes that accommodate Microsoft control of hardware. Should Ubuntu users require permission from Microsoft to merely run on hardware that Microsoft does not own? As one articleput it:

The Ubuntu developers at Canonical have released the second support release for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS “Precise Pangolin”. The update adds the ability to boot the Long Term Support (LTS) version on systems that are using UEFI firmware and have Secure Boot enabled. This means that there are now two versions of Ubuntu, 12.04 LTS and 12.10, that can be booted while using the protection mechanism.

Need the GNU and Linux world now bend over with special releases whose main purpose is to overcome Microsoft’s anticompetitive schemes? █

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Microsoft's charm offensives against Free/libre software are proving to be rather effective, despite them involving a gross distortion of facts and exploitation of corruptible elements in the corporate media

A British MEP criticises Battistelli and the management of the European Patent Office (EPO) while Baroness Lucy Neville-Rolfe, UK Minister for Intellectual Property, gets closer to Battistelli in a tactless effort to improve relations